It be interesting, i only think Neymar or maybe Hazard could break the mold if they were to lift their team to world cup glory. Say ermmm, Germany again win the world cup or even England and Germany won because of Ozil Muller doing great and England won because Kane and Sterling played very well. Is that enough considering they are well not hit and miss during the season but in Kane's case probably doesn't win anything in his league where as Ronaldo or Messi will still be top scorer in their league, in Europe and champions league top scorers. Then one of them will win La Liga and probably the cup and start the following season scoring goals as well.

Can anyone other than Neymar/Hazard break that mold with a good world cup performance?

Bacillus

Finland2123 Posts

December 08 2017 11:39 GMT

#2802

So, apart from Neymar, who is on the canditates list?

I could see De Bruyne having reasonable odds if Belgium finally delivers on the World Cup and City keeps doing well in the competitions.

Edit: Ah, Pande got there already.

I haven't seen too many games of City or Chelsea, so I'm not sure. I'd maybe put De Bruyne before Hazard purely on City being so good right now, but that's a vague guess at best.

Edit2: Coutinho has shown some promise too. Considering Pool are still in UCL, FA Cup and it's World Cup year, maybe there's some potential for him peaking high enough to be a contender. That's assuming he even stays in Pool past the winter trade window.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

December 08 2017 11:45 GMT

#2803

Yeah i missed DeBruyne he is defo in the "Xavi" mold of when Xavi and Spain were on top and he got nominated. So if he played as good as he is know, scored a few more goals and continued his assists and won world cup with Belgium he should do enough! But that is literally another just under 12 months of being on the top top level.

Coutinho be a good shout, no offense to Liverpool as they are a big team, but if he moved to Barca he would raise his chances even further.

Bacillus

Finland2123 Posts

December 08 2017 12:27 GMT

#2804

On December 08 2017 20:45 Pandemona wrote:
Coutinho be a good shout, no offense to Liverpool as they are a big team, but if he moved to Barca he would raise his chances even further.

In the longer run it likely increases his chances. However, I doubt they're handing any big awards to players transferred over the winter window unless there's some utterly stunning domination going on.

Not sure about the exact criteria they're considering here though, so who knows.

sneirac

Germany3464 Posts

December 08 2017 13:26 GMT

#2805

Are there really any other criteria than who is the subjective best? It is just journalists submitting their personal 1st, 2nd and 3rd best player and the ranking is done of adding these up.

WillyWanker

France1915 Posts

December 08 2017 15:39 GMT

#2806

When only France Football is voting, it's not really the "best" player they're voting for. They try to elect the player that was symbolic for the past year of football. For example in 2006, Cannavaro won although in the team they also had players like Pirlo... When the FIFA started being involved in the vote, it kinda changed to the best player rather than the symbol, hence Messi ahead of Sneijder.

So for this year, it makes sense that Ronaldo won since he was the key player for the last few rounds of the CL. Modric or Marcelo were more important throughout the year in my opinion, but they're never going to win against a marketing star. However, apart from that he didn't do much, and if the award is about choosing the best player, Messi should win it every year.

Skynx

Turkey7150 Posts

December 08 2017 16:03 GMT

#2807

I don't think either will ever get a 6th.

sneirac

Germany3464 Posts

December 08 2017 16:34 GMT

#2808

On December 09 2017 01:03 Skynx wrote:
I don't think either will ever get a 6th.

All needs to happen is either of them wins the world cup to guarantee it. Or if either wins the CL it will take someone big winning the world cup to prevent it.

Bacillus

Finland2123 Posts

December 08 2017 17:48 GMT

#2809

I think this was mentioned last weekend, but Real is missing Ramos, Carvajal and Casemiro all due to yellow/red cards vs Sevilla this weekend. Bale is iffy due to injury too.

Skynx

Turkey7150 Posts

December 08 2017 17:58 GMT

#2810

On December 09 2017 01:34 sneirac wrote:

Show nested quote +

All needs to happen is either of them wins the world cup to guarantee it. Or if either wins the CL it will take someone big winning the world cup to prevent it.

Bayern/PSG winning cl, Germany/Brazil winning wc where they gona be?

Either way they are not winning WC.

sneirac

Germany3464 Posts

December 08 2017 18:56 GMT

#2811

On December 09 2017 02:58 Skynx wrote:

Show nested quote +

Bayern/PSG winning cl, Germany/Brazil winning wc where they gona be?

Either way they are not winning WC.

Yeah I think that is the way it will go too. My favorite for wc is Brazil and then it wont matter who wins CL they'll just hand it to Neymar.

Jerubaal

United States7684 Posts

December 08 2017 21:18 GMT

#2812

I can't wait to find out in 50 years if Messi or Ronaldo is better. That is, if football advanced stats has gone past "possess the ball a lot" and "take lots of shots".

Bacillus

Finland2123 Posts

December 08 2017 21:25 GMT

#2813

On December 09 2017 06:18 Jerubaal wrote:
I can't wait to find out in 50 years if Messi or Ronaldo is better. That is, if football advanced stats has gone past "possess the ball a lot" and "take lots of shots".

I'm fairly sure it turns out Lord Bendtner was the dominant player of this era after all.

Liquid`Drone

Norway28917 Posts

December 08 2017 21:47 GMT

#2814

agreed with that

TheNewEra

Germany3128 Posts

December 08 2017 21:55 GMT

#2815

Once again a frustrating game to watch. Should have won this (even tho I Like Kiel very much.
Still haven't seen an Eintracht win this season. Fuck me.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

December 08 2017 22:10 GMT

#2816

According to scientists we have peaked as a human race in sports too so we might not never see a messi or ronaldo again.

I think that is wrong personally but who am i to argue with science!

Greg_J

China4409 Posts

December 09 2017 07:01 GMT

#2817

The more people train the better they will get at things. The only reason Britain did so well at the Olympics (which was fun to watch in China by the way) was that we threw tonnes of lottery money at it. So we could make people basically professional in sports that there isn’t really a professional scene for. A lot like the Korean Archery scene is supported by all the big companies in Korea even no one cares about it. Meaning Korea is the only country in the world people make careers out of doing archery every day as a job. This is also largely what the Chinese do too only using state money and taking kids that are unfortunate enough to show too much talent too early from their villages and families and making them train every second of the day in some isolated academy. Also we got a stupid number of medals from cycling by designing very slightly, like micro-second more aerodynamic gear (which is basically an unfair advantage really).

The way I see the Olympics going is countries will copy Britain by throwing tones of money at it until we are all back where we started only a lot more money down the pan. Whether employing people to train in this manner is wasted money or not is a separate debate.

With regards specifically to football players need to be so much fitter these days. The game is so often about pace and counter attacks that you just can’t carry weight anymore. Football is so varied and there’s so many different ways in which you can be skillful. So I think you need to define a few more variables before you can make any adequate conclusion.

sekishusai

80 Posts

December 09 2017 11:32 GMT

#2818

I don't see Neymar as top3 at all. He's a great player obv and has a fair shot at becoming player of the year but in the last few seasons I'd defintely place Suarez ahead of him on any kind of 'ranking'

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

December 09 2017 11:57 GMT

#2819

Yeah but Suarez the last 6 months has proper gone MIA but i get your point for sure. Suarez vs Neymar in "this season" ranking is defo Neymar ahead due to something has happened with Suarez

which is a shame because i was a huge fan when he went to Barca and thought he would go off on one goals wise but this season he isn't even in double figures yet! He is also 30 now so he has "peaked" for sure which is not good for him if he continues and has a bad (full)season.